Positive
Project advancing - milestone achieved
High Impact
Major milestone or critical setback
For the Sandbank offshore wind farm, a 288 MW project in the German sector of the North Sea, the competent authority carried out a mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in line with Annex II of the EIA Directive 2011/92/EU (as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU). Following rounds of public consultation and expert advice, the authority approved the EIA and granted a general, conditional construction and operating permit for the project. The permit was in place by the time of the EIB loan signing on 22 December 2014 and allows construction and operation to proceed subject to specified precautionary measures, with environmental impacts on birds, marine mammals, benthos and invertebrates assessed as acceptable.